People urged to object to plans to demolish old Cork prison site

Residents of The Glen have urged the community to submit an objection to plans to demolish the old Cork prison building ahead of the closure of the consultation period this day next week.

The Irish Prison Service (IPS), on behalf of the justice minister, has given notice of its intention to carry out demolition works at the old prison site.

While the plans only cover the demolition of the building, justice minister Jim O’Callaghan last year announced plans for “a large extension” to the current prison, on the former jail site.

Work on the proposed facility, which will provide spaces for 230 men and 100 women, is to start early next year. The minister recently said it would be completed “in the latter part of this decade”.

Plans are available for inspection by appointment only at the IPS headquarters in Longford or Mayfield Garda Station. Submissions in relation to these must be sent by post and received by Friday, July 3.

Action group

A new group Stop Prison Expansion in Cork Campaign, which recently held a public meeting on the plans, is calling for locals to submit an objection to them.

Mary Hoare, a local resident and member of the group, said the old Cork Prison is listed as being of regional importance by the National Built Heritage Service.

“The demolition and destruction of an important heritage asset dating back to around 1860 would be of significant loss to The Glen community and to the Irish Republic,” she said, calling for the site to be used as a museum and visitor centre.

Ms Hoare said the old Cork Prison “is located in the centre of a residential area and is wholly unsuited to the development of a new prison, which she said would be a visual eyesore and create increased traffic and construction.

“We have experienced severe anti-social behaviour with individuals and drones attempting to deliver materials to prisoners in Cork prison. It is grossly unfair that further prison buildings would be constructed in this same area, only adding to the pressures experienced by residents,” she said.

Call for prison diversion

Another member of the group, Denis Fitzgerald, told The Echo: “I grew up in the shadow of the old prison, we used to play around it.

“The biggest thing of all to me is the loss of our heritage . Why can’t they use that unique limestone building and put in a museum so we could look at our cultural heritage?”

Mr Fitzgerald set up the successful Cork Auto-Crime Diversion Project in the 1990s to combat high rates of auto-crime and joyriding, and believes more initiatives like this, focusing on reducing the prison population, should be introduced.

He said Dr Ciaran McCullagh, a criminologist and UCC lecturer who was a board member for the project, used to say: “If Cork prison was a hospital, and had the same record of curing people where patients were left with more illnesses than they went in with, how long would it last?”

“The current system is not functioning, and working class areas like The Glen were most impacted,” said Mr Fitzgerald.

“There’s a correlation between social deprivation and criminality. There’s a disproportionate number of working class, socially disadvantaged people in the prison population, and putting them in prison hasn’t worked.

“All we’ve seen is an incredible increase in our prison population, yet we keep doing it the same way — it’s a mindset. I’m in my 70s now and it hasn’t changed in the last 70 years.”

He said that he was opposed to the opening of the current Cork Prison because of the stigma it was going to attach to The Glen.

“There is a negative public perception in areas with a prison, and it contributes to the poverty and disadvantage in the area.

“Family members of prisoners might move closer to maintain visitation, these family members are suffering deprivation because of a loss of the person in prison’s income.

“Private property valuation goes down, people might vacate the area. All that contributes to a cycle of marginalisation, and putting prisons in a disadvantaged area just reinforces that cycle.

“If they were going to put a prison in Bishopstown or Douglas they wouldn’t allow it.”

Mr Fitzgerald said that jobs created by the new prison won’t be taken up by locals, as living in the same community as the prison they work in would be unpleasant and dangerous, meaning there will be no economic benefit to the expansion for the local area.

He said that there were also concerns about increased traffic and nuisance from the community’s point of view, saying that Rathmore Rd wasn’t built for prison traffic.

“There’s been very little public consultation on this, it’s been done under the radar. Public awareness and mobilisation is needed.”

Project splitting

Local Green Party councillor Oliver Moran raised similar issues in an official submission to the IPS on the plans, which he described as “sticking two fingers at the nation’s cultural heritage”.

He criticised what he said was “non-existent” public consultation, saying he had expected far greater effort to engage with the community and with councillors for a project on this scale.

Mr Moran said that when Cork City Council wrote to the minister for justice on February, 12 2026, expressing concern that no engagement had taken place with the local community regarding redevelopment of the site, the minister replied that there would be engagement as the project progresses and as part of the planning process.

“Viewing the proposals required members of the public (and public representatives) to attend a garda station by appointment and inspect the proposal under watch. This is a very significant barrier to public participation,” he said.

Mr Moran also raised concern about bats likely living in the current building, and described the manner of delivery of the plans as “project-splitting”.

“The demolition project is clearly a part of an overall scheme to redevelop the site for a new or expanded prison complex. However, the proposal splits the project between the proposed demolition now and an unspecified redevelopment later,” Mr Moran said.

“The application is seeking to demolish culturally significant buildings without specifying what will replace them or why their removal is justified.”

Call to make submissions

Sinn Féin TD for the area, Thomas Gould, said: “I am encouraging everyone, from all over the northside and Cork, to put in their objections to this demolition.

Submissions and/or observations with respect to the proposed development may be made until July 3 to: Estates Directorate, Prison Service Headquarters Building, IDA Business Park, Ballinalee Road, Longford. Envelopes should be marked ‘Old Cork Prison’, and submissions must be accompanied by the name and address of the person making them.

The Echo contacted the IPS for comment.